Premises powered HFC Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) bridges across the AC power utility and CATV HFC ground planes. During surge events (Lightning) voltage differentials across these ground planes can be generated and can assert significant electrical stress across the CPE device leading to device damage.
Safety and reliability groups recognize the effectiveness of establishing an equipotential bond between the AC utility service and telecommunications lines at the premises entry point. The implementation of these system wide practices varies due to local practices or physical limitations. The failure to establish the equipotential bond between the AC utilities and the telecommunications lines (e.g., HFC coaxial cables) allows induced surges to create significant voltage differentials between systems and across CPE devices.
The present invention is therefore directed to the problem of developing a method and apparatus for preventing energy surge events from damaging CPE equipment in a cable access unit installation.